This section describes approaches that could be employed, but are not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or employed. Hence, unless explicitly specified otherwise, any approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application, and any approaches described in this section are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Existing data networks are established by a physical network infrastructure that is organized into a prescribed physical topology. Existing link layer (i.e., OSI layer 2) protocols (e.g., Ethernet, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), token ring, etc.) are used to establish a local area network using wired or wireless link layer switches, bridges repeaters, etc. Existing network layer (i.e., OSI layer 3) routing protocols such as Internet Protocol (IP) can be used to interconnect local area networks into an autonomous system having one or more network layer routers for interconnecting the local area networks. Such routing protocols also can be used to provide routing information between autonomous systems for formation of a wide area network (WAN). Hence, a prescribed physical topology can be established by link layer protocols and network layer routing protocols overlying the link layer protocols.
Private networks can be established based on applying a prescribed logical topology overlying the prescribed physical topology. The prescribed logical topology enables network traffic utilizing the prescribed logical topology to be segregated from the prescribed physical topology, for example for purposes of privacy, security, or performance.